Extra Bases: A playoff preview

You know what I’m talking about. When the sun is shining, the rain is, for the most part, an afterthought, and the baseball season reaches the critical moments of win-or-go-home.

Maybe the rain thing isn’t accurate (call it wishful thinking), but we are at a place in the baseball season where each game holds significance. As league tournaments begin this week, teams face loser-out situations, with seasons and high school careers on the line.

We are going to use this space to delve into what’s ahead for postseason play, starting up north in 3A, working our way down to the SPSL and doing it again for 4A.

As always, the rankings are at the bottom.

3A

District 1: You can view the bracket here. Tournament starts Saturday.

Shorewood, the top-ranked team in the state has locked down the No. 1 seed from the South Division. Marysville-Pilchuck can take the No. 1 seed from the North, but if it trips up against Glacier Peak tonight and Stanwood beats Meadowdale, it would force a tie and the Spartans would get the tiebreaker via head-to-head matchups.

Three teams advance to state from this district. Winning the first game is highly important because losing the second game still would not end a team’s season.

District 2: You can view the bracket for the KingCo 3A tournament here.

In the KingCo tournament, Bellevue gets the top spot after beating Mercer Island to win the regular-season title, but the Islanders will also get a first-round bye after finishing second.

Bellevue will face the winner of Liberty-Mount Si, which play in a loser-out game on Thursday. Mercer Island gets the winner of Juanita and Interlake. Second-round games take place on Saturday.

The top team from KingCo goes on to state, while the runner-up will face Metro No. 4 for a berth in a loser-out game.

Metro starts its tournament on Saturday and it will determine the top three teams in its league, sending them on in the playoffs. The No. 4 team faces KingCo No. 2 for a chance to move on.

District 3: The News Tribune has a great schedule of all playoff games in its area. Follow the link to see more, but here is a portion of what it posted, with SPSL 3A sending five teams to districts. District 3 eventually sends five teams to state.

* SPSL 3A

Wednesday-Friday, Auburn Mountainview High School

Seeds to districts: Five.

Schedule:

(All games Wednesday)

G1: Decatur (14-6) vs. Kennedy Catholic (13-2), 4 p.m.

G2: Bonney Lake (12-7) vs. Auburn Mountainview (13-7), 7 p.m.

(All games Thursday)

G3: Decatur/Kennedy loser vs. Bonney Lake/AMV loser, 4 p.m. (3, 4)

G4: Decatur/Kennedy winner vs. Bonney Lake/AMV winner, 7 p.m. (1, 2)

(Game Friday)

G5: Enumclaw (11-9) vs. Hazen (12-6), 7 p.m. (5, lo)

4A

District 1: You can view the bracket here. Tournament starts Saturday.

Lake Stevens and Snohomish are both 10-5 in league with one game to left, splitting four regular-season contest. We’ll have to see how that plays out as the two teams duke it out for the No. 1 seed. Arlington and Monroe both sit at 6-9, trying to take the final two spots to the tournament.

Mount Vernon sits waiting at 6-10. If Arlington slips into a tie with Mount Vernon, the Bulldogs have the head-to-head advantage. Monroe has the head-to-head advantage against Mount Vernon.

In the South, Cascade has the No. 1 seed and Edmonds-Woodway has locked up the No. 2 spot. Jackson and Lynnwood, both 9-6 in league, will receive the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, depending how the season finishes.

District 2: KingCo 4A will get two teams to the regional round, where the No. 1 seed will play in Kent and the No. 2 in Everett.

District 3: Again, the TNT has a great schedule, which I’ll post at the bottom of this section. The SPSL 4A gets nine teams to districts, which will then feed seven teams to state (or, I guess regionals).